Money won't solve math crisis

Utah Valley State College President William Sederburg, near the end of his My View piece, "Education vital to fiscal health" (Jan. 25), offers what he calls a few "cost effective strategies." The first is "Improving math in the high schools." He points out that "only one-third of Utah students are prepared to take college level math." And that "Math is the number one hurdle for most students in completing their college degrees."

As a parent who has had four children at UVSC, I want to know what he is doing about it, besides suggesting that if money is thrown at the problem it will somehow be solved.

At about the same time Michael Moore was being invited to speak at UVSC, the Deseret Morning News ran a classic man-bites-dog story about a woman student running a petition drive at the college to improve the math program. She was forced to travel to Salt Lake Community College to find classes that could teach her what she needed. Last summer, my son, a student living near campus, found a flier on his door advertising understandable, low cost, accredited math courses to fulfill UVSC requirements.

There ought to be more to educational leadership than identifying other people's problems and suggesting more money is the solution. Accountability, not money, is the problem.

Lee Allen

Provo